LUCKNOW, March 21 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail plea of an IRS officer, who was posted as the CGST deputy commissioner at Jhansi, in connection with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) bribery case involving an amount of Rs.1.5 crore. Rejecting the plea, the court observed that the evidence on record did not justify the grant of bail at this stage. However, considering that the accused is a woman, the high court directed the lower court to expedite the trial and avoid unnecessary adjournments. Justice Rajeev Singh passed the order on March 10 on the bail application of Indian Revenue Service officer Prabha Bhandari. The court said no ground for granting bail was made out in view of the material on record, including a recorded conversation allegedly linking the officer to the bribery transaction. According to the prosecution, Bhandari, who was posted as the deputy commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax , in Jhansi, along with other officials, had demanded a bribe of Rs.1.5 crore from businessmen to settle a case of GST evasion. During a trap laid by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Rs.70 lakh was recovered from a co-accused officer. The CBI relied on a recorded WhatsApp call between the applicant and a co-accused, which it claimed indicated acknowledgment of the bribe amount and discussions about converting it into gold. The CBI argued that a complete chain of circumstantial and electronic evidence existed and alleged the applicant did not cooperate during the investigation. HTC...